Keep the specialized high school admissions test; fix K-8 education throughout the city

By Tahseen Chowdury

Jun 14, 2018 | 3:35 PM

Stuyvesant High School. (Susan Watts / New York Daily News)

The admissions criteria to New York City’s Specialized High Schools has recently come under fire from the de Blasio administration for limited racial diversity. Currently, gaining admissions to a specialized high school requires the passing of a single, objective, merit-based exam, the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).

As a senior at Stuyvesant High School, I can confidently state that most of our community would agree that there is a serious and detrimental issue with the lack of diversity at the Specialized High Schools. While a solution to the lack of diversity is long overdue, blaming the test is only a political maneuver designed to avoid the actual systemic issues. We need to stop talking about the test, and we need to start talking about the failing K-8 education system in New York City. It’s a difficult discussion to have, but it needs to happen.

Advertisement

If the de Blasio administration continues to avoid the actual problem, the administration would be committing educational malpractice and would continue to deny an entire generation of black and Hispanic students their right to a sound education. The problem and the solution are a lot more complex than simply removing an exam.

The NYC Department of Education’s (DOE) own data shows that between 2013 and 2017, fewer than 25% of black and Hispanic students in grades 3-8 were Common Core proficient. The curriculum taught in New York City schools is based on the Common Core standards that were adopted by New York State in 2013. The SHSAT is also based on these state standards — standards that have to be taught in all New York City public schools.

The results of the SHSAT are merely a reflection of the failure of the city to properly educate our black and Hispanic students. Given that fewer than 25% of our black and Hispanic students are grade level proficient, and fewer than 7% are above proficient, it is no surprise that that underrepresented minority communities have only a 10% admissions rate to the Specialized High Schools.

This very simple mathematical explanation for the lack of diversity is overlooked by political leaders because they don’t want to have the difficult discussion about K-8 education across New York City.

The school system as a whole is failing our students, yet low-income Asian communities have performed better on state standards. I remember being about four years old when I first encountered the SHSAT and the Specialized High Schools.

I asked to sip a little bit of coffee from my dad’s cup, and as I did, I noticed a local Bengali newspaper with pages filled with photos of students. These photos were newspaper articles written by the community press to highlight the academic successes of students headed to a Specialized High School. It’s not uncommon for Asian communities to learn about the SHSAT early on.

New immigrant families, through community info sessions, newspapers and general word of mouth, have managed to realize that the Department of Education fails low-income students on many levels. Thus, they’ve sought out supplemental education, whether that be to hire tutors or to enroll students in enrichment programs to bridge those gaps starting from elementary school.

If the Department of Education managed to properly provide a sound education to our students, these supplemental education programs would not have to exist. If black and Hispanic students were not denied their right to a sound education, they would be ready to obtain an offer at a Specialized High School.

While I’m glad we are discussing diversity in education, the conversation needs to be about the educational failure within the DOE, and not about one test. It’s unfortunate that the DOE fails over 75% of our black and Hispanic students from grades 3-8, but it’s even more unfortunate that our mayor and our politicians are scapegoating the SHSAT to avoid having a real discussion about reforming the education system from the ground up.

Chowdhury is graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 2018. He will attend Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College next year.